When an organic hydride is heated in the presence of a certain catalyst, a dehydrogenation reaction produces hydrogen and an aromatic hydrocarbon (dehydrogenation product). On the other hand, this dehydrogenation product reacts with hydrogen in the presence of a certain catalyst to produce an organic hydride. Accordingly, with such an organic hydride, it is possible to densely reserve hydrogen, which is obtained through decomposition of water by power generated by natural energy, surplus electricity, or the like, hydrogen, which is a byproduct in a process of manufacturing steel, petroleum refinery, manufacturing chemical, or hydrogen, which is obtained otherwise.
Conventionally, known is a system for producing hydrogen from an organic hydride, using the exhaust heat of a solid-oxide fuel cell (for example, see Patent Document 1). The temperature in power generation by a solid-oxide fuel cell with hydrogen as fuel becomes 600-1000° C. Accordingly, this system uses exhaust heat in heating (250-400° C.) a reactor to perform dehydrogenation reaction of an organic hydride.
In this system, the solid-oxide fuel cell generates power by hydrogen obtained from the organic hydride.